It is absolutely not worse to pay Costco membership. First of all it is not true that you are buying at Costco at "wholesale prices" just like it is absolutely not worse to pay $60 a year or more for Costco membership. You dont need to be smart to figure it out but somehow it blows my mind to see so many naive people staying in long lines to check out or the same people who always have to look to even park their cars. The most ridiculous is that Costco has such a low choices of products and most of them Are Not cheaper than in stores like: Walmart, where you have 100 times more choices of stuff and often cheaper stuff and food, Wincos, who has way more choices of food is also cheaper overall than Costco. Even Fred Meyer has quite comparable prices with way more choices of stuff and food ...plus none of these stores requires pay for membership and none of them have so much waiting in lines and problem even park your car. Think about why Costco is the only company who makes people wait in line with 2-3 items and not having "express lanes" or check out yourself? Because Costco wants you to buy as many items as you can put in their big shopping carts and thats why not offers small shopping carts like most of stores and if you buy only couple of items Costco will have you wait in line with people who have full big shopping carts. ..... not fair at all.